Condensed
by ashestoashesanddusttodust
Summary: Drabble series. Each chapter unrelated, see notes on each chapter for warnings.
1. Condensed

**Condensed  
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 **Notes:** Apollo x Phoenix. I recently rediscovered my AA games -well, all but the first- and am losing my mind to it all over again. And I guess I have some catching up to do now too with Dual Destinies. Have some meaningless fluff.

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Apollo's not quite used to it. Cooking a meal for more than just himself that is. It's not something he's ever really had to do before. Clay usually brings food to Apollo or insists they go out to eat the few times their schedules coincide, and there never used to be anyone else he knew well enough to hang out with.

That had changed when he joined the Wright Anything Agency in many ways.

Eating out everyday isn't a very cost effective choice in the long run though. Plus there's only so many bowls of salty broth Apollo can choke down before having a mental breakdown and raiding the cupboards in the small apartment the Wrights live in for something edible. The dusty cans of condensed soup he finds behind stacks of instant ramen aren't the best but they're years ahead of Eldoon's Noodles.

A pot of soup isn't all that much effort to throw together when he turns down his boyfriend's -and Apollo is looking forward to the day when his mind _won't_ balk at applying that concept to Phoenix Wright- plans of going to the Noodle stand. He ignores the pouting that stance gets him and scrounges up some suspicious looking vegetables. He doubts either Phoenix or Trucy bought them, but they look serviceable enough.

Apollo's not used to cooking for two, but a can of soup is easy enough that anyone can do it. So, he's not prepared at all for the ecstatic reaction he gets when he hands Phoenix a bowl.

"You're a real genius in the kitchen, Apollo," Phoenix mumbles around the spoon still stuck in his mouth. His eyes are half lidded in a way that Apollo's not used to seeing out of the bedroom, and the noises he made when first trying the soup had made him thankful Trucy is still out. "You sure being a lawyer is what you really should be doing?"

"It's water," Apollo states flatly and ignores the way his face feels hot at the compliment. He's being teased again and he really doesn't appreciate it after the long day he's had already. "You put it in a pot with the can and heat it up. It's not like it's rocket science, Mr. Wright."

" _Mr._ Wright? Aw, don't be angry with me, Polly," Phoenix drawls out but he's smiling in amusement even as he pretends to look sorry. "You're a great lawyer too. You just make a really great soup. It's the best I've ever had!"

Considering that Phoenix says the same thing to Mr. Eldoon every time they go to his noodle cart, Apollo's going to take the compliment with the same amount of salt Eldoon dissolves into each bowl of his noodles. Approximately half of a one pound bag according to his investigations. "You really make me worry sometimes, Phoenix. How has Trucy survived malnourishment? Or you?"

"It's a mystery," Phoenix laughs easily. Not taking the potential insult harshly at all. Apollo knows that Phoenix had done _something_ though. As easy as the man is about seemingly anything and everything, Trucy is his daughter, and Apollo knows there isn't a lot he won't do when it comes to her safety and well-being.

It's one of the first things that had made him realize the legendary man he'd admired so much wasn't just another lie to mask a corrupt attorney. Made him pay attention to the infuriating man who was his boss and find the real Phoenix somewhere between the idol he'd imagined and the twisted man painted by the media after his disbarment.

Apollo's pulled from his thoughts when his hand gets picked up. Phoenix is still laughing at him but his eyes are warm. Teasing still as he presses Apollo's hand to his chest with overblown flair. Apollo hadn't been all that surprised to learn what the man's major had been before he turned to law. "It's a true mystery for the ages how we ever survived without you!"

"I don't think Ema could solve that mystery," Apollo refuses to let himself be flustered further than he already it. "Just- just shut up and eat."

Cooking for more than himself isn't something Apollo's used to, but it might be worth doing it more often. Just for the honest laugh that comes out of Phoenix when he yanks his hand back, and the obvious enjoyment he gets out of the simple soup.

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	2. Ante Up

**Ante Up  
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 **Notes:** And now this is a drabble series. Prompt for this is Athena, Apollo, and Phoenix playing strip poker. My mind took it a teensy bit further with embarrassing genital piercings from teenage years.

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"I have so many regrets," Apollo mutters and studiously keeps his eyes on his cards as a surprisingly plain bra gets added to the pile of clothing on the table. The new article makes the whole pile _shift_ though and the bra tumbles onto the terrible cards making him flinch back. "So very many regrets. How did I let you two talk me into this?"

"Quit complaining and pay up," Athena snips testily. Her head is still high but when Apollo looks over -eyes firmly _above_ her neck- the embarrassed blush she's been fighting back for the last several hands is getting darker. She's still got fire and determination in her eyes even though she's down to her underwear and one sock.

At least, that's what he thinks. He hasn't been brave enough to check since Phoenix _somehow_ managed to get three royal flushes in a row.

"Pay up, Polly," Phoenix says with a lazy grin as he slouches further down on the couch across from them. Not troubled at all by anything. He's dressed only in a worn pair of sweats, and a tank top with writing on it too faded to read. Which would be more inspiring if that weren't the exact same things he'd sat down in over an hour ago when they started playing. "That pillow's mine anyway, and I fully expect you to clean it before tomorrow."

"And whose fault is that!?" Apollo scowls even as he clutches the small pillow he'd snagged last round citing a severe disadvantage in the amount of clothing distribution. Even in his suit he didn't have as many articles as Athena. It might not have been as much of a problem for him if they were playing at an actual table. The height would have hid a lot more for him at least, but the only table in the office was -sadly- a coffee table that didn't even reach the height of his knees.

"No one forced you to play strip poker! Did you see me hesitate?" Athena points a finger in the general region of her chest area and Apollo quickly fixes his eyes on Phoenix who looks like he's storing this all up for future blackmailing purposes. "Stop stalling and hand it over already!"

Yeah, but she doesn't exactly have anything to be embarrassed about. Not for the first time, Apollo curses teenage stupidity and the dares that only egged it on. Clay had gotten away from that incident with nipple piercings. Sure, Apollo had laughed at him at the time because they'd hurt more than his own choice of piercing. But that was years ago and it figured it was past time for him to pay for it. Reluctantly, Apollo takes the pillow off his lap and places it on the pile of winnings. He stubbornly holds his head up and waits for what he knows is coming.

"Holy shit!" Phoenix loses the cool indifference he uses as a poker face as he plants a hand in the middle of the clothes. Leaning over the coffee table to _stare_. His voice rises in pitch with a kind of reflexive horror that Apollo just might find funny. Later. "Is that a ladder?"

Athena, by contrast seems filled with the kind of gleeful, sadistic curiosity people feel when coming across an accident, "Didn't that hurt? How many piercings is that anyway?"

"I plead the fifth," Apollo mutters. A mistake, because he's suddenly the focus of two very intent pairs of eyes. It's always strange when he finds himself getting a firsthand taste of what it's like for witnesses testifying.

On the plus side, Apollo is no longer in danger of using his bike as a bargaining chip.

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	3. Belief

**Belief  
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 **Notes:** Apollo x Phoenix.

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"So," Phoenix begins like he's continuing a conversation that had been briefly interrupted.

Apollo immediately tenses because there is no interrupted conversation, and his short time at the Wright Anything Agency has taught him to distrust that particularly careless tone from his boss. The fact that Phoenix uses it nearly every day in no way undermines how very dangerous it is to Apollo's mental well-being.

"I can't lose, huh?" Phoenix turns his head enough to smile slyly at Apollo. Direct eye contact and words were always a prelude to utter embarrassment. "You were pretty confident in that fact."

Papers crinkle in his hand and Apollo has no trouble noticing the particular font and layout used for all court transcripts. In fact, he has no problem identifying _which_ case those are for. There aren't many cases of his to choose from, and Apollo had combed the transcripts and video of his first trial almost obsessively the first few months afterwards. Looking for something, anything, he could point to for- Well, anything really. An explanation, an excuse, vindication...

Too bad, because of all that reading, he can't claim ignorance of the exact line Phoenix is now quoting. Which would have been nice to do. Not that it'd work to stop the inevitable teasing from the older man.

"I didn't have anything else to use!" Apollo refuses to be embarrassed. Well, refuses to be _too_ embarrassed. Phoenix seems to live for teasing him, and Apollo can't let him get away with it all the time. "Because _someone_ decided not give his attorney all the facts upfront."

"No one ever does. I was preparing you for the future," Phoenix smiles. Unashamed as always when called out on something. "Anyway, you might have been buying time, but you honestly believed what you were saying. You really think I can't ever lose anything?"

He had believed that, yes, and it's more than a little embarrassing even now how quickly he'd used that excuse as an _objection_. "You're always telling me to believe my clients!"

"Believe _in_ your clients, not believe everything they say," Phoenix flicks the papers and then winks at him. "But it's nice knowing you think so highly of me."

"Yeah, well everyone makes mistakes," Apollo turns away from Phoenix and goes back to his files. "I learned better after that."

"Aw, don't say that," Apollo startles as two arms wrap around him from behind. Phoenix's chin digs into Apollo's shoulder and Apollo can't help but tense at the proximity. "You'll hurt my feelings."

"Y-you have feelings?" Apollo tries to go for flippant but probably misses the mark. By a lot going from the way Phoenix laughs right into his ear making Apollo shudder at the sensation of it. "That's a new one."

"I have a lot of feelings," Phoenix murmurs and his arms get tighter for a brief moment before pulling away. His voice is bright and loud showing no hint of the deeper and more serious tone the man had just used. "Right now, I'm feeling like lunch. Watch the office while I'm out."

Apollo waits for the man to leave before dropping his head onto the table with a loud thunk. He wants to scream but they've already had two noise complaints this month. He blows out a frustrated breath instead and focuses on the way his face feels like it's on fire from the teasing. It's a new kind of teasing that Phoenix has been using more and more often, but only when they are alone so that no one else can see it. Which may or may not mean anything depending on how serious the man is about the flirting.

Figuring out whether or not Phoenix means anything by it is a question that Apollo thinks on long after Phoenix comes back with Trucy and a takeaway container of noodles.

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	4. Hook

**Hook  
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 **Notes:** Apollo x Phoenix. The moment when my mind was sold on Apollo as a character was right here in this moment. I really do love it, and just wanted to explore a bit.

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He punches Phoenix Wright.

Apollo knows that any other time, maybe even sometime in the future, he's going to look back on this moment and feel embarrassed. Maybe he'll even feel sorry for doing it, but that time is not now.

No, Apollo only feels anger right now. A fiercely burning emotion that isn't satisfied by just one punch, and barely covers the disappointment flooding him. There's a bitter voice that just laughs in the back of his mind telling him he should've known better. Phoenix Wright was disbarred for a _reason_ , and just because Apollo had never believed it doesn't mean it's not true.

Phoenix Wright, the attorney he'd looked up to, the man he'd used to pull himself first through law school and then the bar exams. A disgraced lawyer who lost his license for using forged evidence to maintain his spotless record. Why should Apollo be so surprised to find out that the man would use forged evidence to get himself out of a murder charge too?

He shouldn't be, but he is. He expected better and that's the real reason he's grinding his teeth hard against the urge to attack his client. Again.

Wright smiles at him and Apollo's hand is starting to cramp from how hard he's clenching it. There's going to be a spectacular bruise on his jaw in a few hours but the man smiles like Apollo just told him a _joke_.

Apollo barely hears what Wright says. Disbelief warring with the anger as he's handed a card and Wright wanders off. Apollo focuses on his breathing. Counting them in and out, using that to block out the onslaught of possibilities that hit him only when the source of his anger is gone.

He used _forged_ evidence in the trial today. The fact that he didn't know it was forged doesn't mean much. It's his duty as an attorney to _check_ his evidence. Not just blindly accept it from some strange girl and assume it was exactly what she said it was.

Mr. Gavin always said-

His legs go weak and Apollo staggers back to a bench seat against the wall. Sinking down as the events of the trial sink in. Mr. Gavin confessed to murder. Confessed because of a forged piece of evidence that he...

"He knew it was forged," Apollo mutters to himself with the sudden epiphany. The pieces all falling together in a logic that he can't escape. Mr. Gavin knew it was forged because he had the real card in his possession. Something that would have been found out with the proper warrants, but he'd given up under the evidence shown in court to escape that.

Facts snap into place and lead Apollo to one numbing conclusion that he'd been too shocked to think about in court. Mr. Gavin had murdered a man, and then tried to pin the blame on someone else.

Anger is the last thing Apollo feels when he eventually leaves the courthouse. He's tired as he tucks the card he's been holding away and climbs onto his bike. The faint throb in the fist he'd punched with isn't a feeling, but concentrating on it gives him something to do on the trip home.

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	5. Line

**Line  
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 **Notes:** Apollo x Phoenix. I could never leave well enough alone.

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Sometimes Phoenix will touch his jaw and feel the phantom throbbing pain of an uppercut. No amount of massaging or icepacks can make that feeling go away. Not that he has the luxury of doing either of those things most times, because it usually takes all he has in him to keep up whatever facade he's got going on then.

 _Too far,_ an old part of him mourns with a dark regret that he used to only be able to erase with a bottle or two of something stronger than grape juice. _Not far enough,_ a colder, more calculated part of him will always respond, and it's this part of him that Phoenix clings to as he smiles lazily through the pain that threatens to paralyze his face some days.

Gavin's behind bars now, but Phoenix's work is only getting started. The jurist system is finally starting to get off the ground, and all the old secrets Gavin had hidden are crawling out of the shadows for Phoenix to pick up. Stopping now is out of the question. The truth will come out and things must be fixed.

He's been doing this for seven years, now is not the time to start feeling guilty of what he has to do.

It's hard not to feel it sometimes though. Mostly when he sits back and listens to Trucy gleefully describing trials he watched from the back of the gallery. Hard not to feel bad when looking at Apollo shredding through each lie a witness puts forth reminds him of how he used to be. How he'd been before an inconsistency he couldn't see through had ruined him.

Before he was destroyed by a fellow attorney and client who ran from everything.

Phoenix isn't the man he used to be. In order to survive he can't be that man anymore. It doesn't stop him from regretting that fact sometimes, and rubbing away at the phantom pain of a punch.

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End file.
